As law­makers head home to their dis­tricts for Thanks­giv­ing re­cess, Re­pub­lic­ans will be serving up a bliz­zard of mes­saging de­signed to high­light the prob­lems with Obama­care. They even have a play­book on how to do it.

House GOP lead­ers armed their rank-and-file mem­bers Thursday with a new mes­saging book on how to ham­mer home the health care law’s prob­lems while out­side Wash­ing­ton.

The cov­er of the new play­book bears the title “#Keep­TheP­rom­ise” and the next page ex­plains that it lays out “mes­saging tools to help you com­mu­nic­ate in your dis­trict about the on­go­ing harm Obama­care is caus­ing.”

One part of the play­book says House Re­pub­lic­an con­fer­ence lead­ers have pro­duced a “series of fly­ers com­par­ing lost in­sur­ance per state to se­lec­ted plans in the Obama­care ex­changes.”

“Down­load your state fly­er here to share on so­cial me­dia us­ing the hash tag #KeepY­ourHealth­Plan,” the book tells law­makers.

There is also a sec­tion in the play­book on the Obama­care rol­lout num­bers re­leased on Nov. 13. “The num­bers were well be­low ex­pect­a­tions and show no signs of im­prov­ing.”

The play­book is not en­tirely neg­at­ive in fo­cus, however. It con­cludes with post­card-like pho­tos of a spread of food at a Thanks­giv­ing table, and an­oth­er photo of a wag­on filled with pump­kins on a bu­col­ic lakeside. The cap­tion on both takes from a quote that is at­trib­uted to Ab­ra­ham Lin­coln: “The year that is draw­ing to­ward its close has been filled with the bless­ings of fruit­ful fields and health­ful skies.”

"The White House on Monday said that CNN correspondent Jim Acosta's press pass has been 'restored,' bowing to days of pressure and a federal lawsuit against the administration. CNN signaled that it would drop the ongoing litigation over Acosta's access to the White House."

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WAS IT A POLITICAL PLOY?

Troops at Border to Begin Withdrawing

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"The 5,800 troops who were rushed to the Southwest border amid President Donald Trump’s pre-election warnings about a refugee caravan will start coming home as early as this week — just as some of those migrants are beginning to arrive. The timing is bound to fuel renewed accusations that the entire exercise amounted to a ploy by the president to use active-duty military forces as a prop to try to stem Republican losses in this month’s midterm elections, despite the absence of any legitimate threat to U.S. national security."

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CLEARS THE WAY FOR CLYBURN

DeGette Drops Bid for Majority Whip

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LARGEST BORDER CROSSING IN WESTERN HEMISPHERE

Administration Shuts Down San Diego Border Crossing

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"U.S. border officials on Monday shut down all vehicular traffic flowing north from Mexico into California at the country's busiest border crossing and diverted staff to help bulk up the infrastructure and security there, in anticipation of the arrival of thousands of migrants traveling in caravans from Central America. The San Ysidro port of entry, which processes 20,000 pedestrians and 70,000 vehicles moving from Tijuana to San Diego each day, closed all passenger and commercial lanes and one of its two pedestrian crossings."

Source:

NO SENATE CONFIRMATION

Senators Sue Over Whitaker Appointment

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Sens. Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono, and Sheldon Whitehouse have "filed a lawsuit challenging the appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general," which argues that "the appointment of Whitaker violates the Constitution because he has not been confirmed by the Senate. The complaint asks a judge to declare the appointment unconstitutional and to prevent him from serving as head of the Justice Department."